NEW YORK, NY March 29, 2007 —As part of a new city program, New Yorkers will be encouraged to recycle when they're out and about. WNYC's Amy Eddings has more.

REPORTER: Starting Monday, big green cans will appear in parks and at the Staten Island ferry terminals at Saint George and Whitehall. They are there to take soda cans, plastic water bottles, and newspapers from New Yorkers on the go. Councilman Michael McMahon, head of the Sanitation Committee, says the cans are part of an effort to boost the city's recycling rate, which is now at 17%.

MCMAHON: The cost of landfilling continues to go up and the cost of recycling continues to go down. And if we reach a point where we’re recycling 25% of the waste, the city will actually save money.

REPORTER: Sanitation officials say half the trash in the city's street wastebaskets is recyclable. For WNYC, I'm Amy Eddings.